Then the children came romping into the kitchen.  “Here they come!” cried the wishbone.  “Now watch me make their wishes come true!”

And all the other objects scarcely breathed while they watched the children as they took the wishbone from the shelf.  They could see how proud he looked as the children each took one of the wishbone’s legs between their fingers.

“I wish that this kitchen were just filled with candy and cake, then we could eat all we wish to!” one of the children said.  “And I wish for a million golden pennies piled high upon the kitchen table!” the other child cried.

“Now watch!” the wishbone winked to the objects upon the shelf behind the stove.

The two children pulled upon the wishbone’s legs.  “Ouch!” he cried.  There was a loud snap, and the wishbone broke in two.

“I get my Wish!” cried the child with the longest part of the broken wishbone, “The room will be filled with candy!”

“Watch the room fill with candy!” cried all the objects upon the shelf.  “How wonderful it must be to be a wishbone!”

But the room did not fill with candy.

“That’s another time the wish did not come true!” cried one child.

“They never come true!” cried the other child as the broken wishbone was tossed in the coal scuttle.  “Wishbones are just ordinary bones and do not make wishes come true!” And the children ran outside to romp and play.

“How much better it is to be a useful object!” said the stove lifter.

“Yes indeed!” replied the match box.  “And the more useful one is, usually, the less he brags about himself!”

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

TIM TIM TAMYTAM

“This looks like an excellent place, Tim Tim!” Mrs. Tamytam said, as she threw her little poke bonnet back from her head.  “An excellent place!” Tim Tim Tamytam scrambled up the root of the tree and peered into the dark hole in the tree trunk.  “HMMM!” he said by way of reply, “Did you bring the candle with you, Tum Tum?”

“Oh, I forgot it, Tim Tim!” his little wife replied, “I will run right back and get it!”

“No, Tum Tum!  I will run home and get it!  You sit down upon this soft little toad-stool and wait until I return.  It will take me but a moment!”

So Mrs. Tamytam sat down to wait upon the little soft toad-stool, with her bonnet hanging over her shoulders, and she sang and knitted.

Now, Mrs. Tamytam was a delightful little elfish lady, and she and Tim Tim were very, very happy together, even though they were only six inches tall.

So, while she sang and knitted, Tim Tim ran down the tiny path made by the woodfolk, past the bubbling spring and around the bend in the bank of the tumbling brooklet until he came to his home, which was another hole in the trunk of an old tree.

As Tim Tim climbed into his doorway, he stood and looked with dismay at what had been his cozy living room, for now it was filled with sawdust and small pieces of sticks and twigs, for the whole top of the old tree had broken off and now the rain would splash right down on everything the first time there was a shower.